A former reindeer rancher-turned-congressman gets beat by a foreclosure attorney. A businessman pours $5 million of his own money into a race and still loses. One of Congress’ most independent members wins easily, but lashes out at the party establishment that targeted him for defeat.

Whatever the 2014 Michigan primaries were, they weren’t boring.

Tuesday night’s election results were pivotal, most likely assuring that a Dingell — Debbie, not John — will continue to serve in Congress and — barring an improbable result in the Nov. 4 general election — that U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Detroit will become the House’s longest-serving active member.

But that is only skimming the surface, considering that Birmingham lawyer Dave Trott handily defeated U.S. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Milford, a former educator, National Guardsman and reindeer rancher who was 2012’s surprise candidate; and state Sen. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, beat Paul Mitchell in a congressional primary despite Mitchell betting millions of his own dollars on himself.

In west Michigan, U.S. Rep. Justin Amash — targeted for defeat by state and national chambers of commerce, as well as Right to Life of Michigan — easily won, and in his victory speech blasted his opponent for running what he called a “disgusting, despicable smear campaign.”

Meanwhile, in the race for the open 14th Congressional District seat, Southfield Mayor Brenda Lawrence claimed a hard-fought Democratic nod over state Rep. Rudy Hobbs and probably secured herself a new job.

Attention now will shift quickly to the November elections and marquee matchups between Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and Democratic challenger Mark Schauer, and Republican Terri Lynn Land and Democrat Gary Peters running for an open U.S. Senate seat. But before it does, here are some quick takeaways from an amazing primary season:

Women on the rise

It wasn’t a big wave, but there is a rising tide of representation by women in Michigan’s delegation in Congress, which will most likely double with the victories of Dingell and Lawrence on Tuesday.

Both are in relatively safe Democratic seats. And women have some opportunities in the state Senate with the likes of Stacy Erwin Oakes in Saginaw, Dian Slavens in Canton and Cathy Roberts in west Michigan.

“I think people are very eager to get women in leadership,” said Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing. “Women are an enormous voting bloc. We are the ones who are bringing home the bacon and frying it up in the pan.

“I love to see women running for office.”

Money talks sometimes

In contested U.S. House races, Michigan had three of the top 10 self-funders in the nation.

But while Trott’s $2.4 million clearly helped him to victory, the same can’t be said for the $5 million Mitchell, a retired Saginaw County businessman, put in his race, or the $1 million Grand Rapids businessman Brian Ellis loaned himself.

Democratic state Senate candidate Ryan Fishman of Birmingham spent nearly $100,000 of his own money, but was beaten by Cyndi Peltonen of Clawson, who spent far less.

Political class matters

Talk of outsider bona fides abounds on the campaign trail, but of the five favored congressional candidates nominated Tuesday, two — Moolenaar and Lawrence — hold political jobs; two — Trott and Dingell — are political insiders with deep ties to their parties; and one, Mike Bishop of Rochester is a former state Senate majority leader.

Meanwhile, it was outsiders like Bentivolio — who never got close to the local party structure — who lost.

Yob on a roll

With wins by Moolenaar and Trott, west Michigan political strategist John Yob has a streak going that includes earlier campaigns this year in Florida and Nebraska. It doesn’t end here, however, since he has a stake in both the Snyder and Land campaigns, as well as recently taking on a role for potential GOP presidential aspirant Rand Paul’s political action committee.

Speaking of Yob

In election memos, he has downplayed the idea of a so-called civil war between the tea party and establishment Republican candidates, pointing out that Moolenaar, in particular, got support from both sides and it made the difference.

“This campaign is yet another example of the power of finding strong conservative candidates who stay on message and are true to their principles.”

But some of the GOP’s most conservative candidates in outstate Michigan won — Todd Courser of Lapeer; Gary Glenn, the very anti-gay candidate of Midland; Cindy Gamrat in Plainwell; and social conservative Lee Chatfield bumping off state Rep. Frank Foster in Petoskey. Chatfield’s win came, in part, because of Foster’s advocacy for including protections for LGBT citizens in the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

Outside help

Amash, in west Michigan, likely would have won anyway, but it’s not lost on anyone that the Club for Growth — a conservative group that likes his independent streak and has taken on Republican House leaders itself — directed more than $750,000 toward keeping him in the seat.

Other folks getting significant amounts of outside help were Moolenaar — from the state chamber and others — as well as Lawrence, who was helped by Emily’s List.

The more things change

One way or another, Michigan’s getting at least — and probably at most — five new members of Congress — and a new U.S. senator — next year.

But among the U.S. House seats open, all are expected to go to the parties that hold them now. At present, the state’s delegation has nine Republicans and five Democrats. And there looks to be few pickup opportunities available, especially among the GOP.

Democrats will look more closely at U.S. Reps. Dan Benishek, R-Crystal Falls, and Tim Walberg, R-Tipton as possible long shots, with former Kalkaska County Sheriff Jerry Cannon and former state Rep. Pam Byrnes their respective challengers.

Otherwise, they’ll look at whether Democrat Bobby McKenzie has a chance of beating Trott in a metro Detroit district with a Republican lean.

We don’t need polls

There were plenty of candidates who thought they had a comfortable lead going into Tuesday’s election, but woke up from their celebratory stupor to find they had lost — and badly.

Hansen Clarke and Mitchell both held double-digit leads two weeks before the primary, but fell far short of the prize.

One poll had Proposal 1, which phases out the personal property tax, losing by big margins, but it won in a landslide.

“Primaries are always tough because you only have 18% of the people coming out to vote,” said Lansing political consultant and pollster Tom Shields of Marketing Resource Group. “It’s really tough to narrow it down to the people who actually show up at the polls.”

Turnout low — again

Rumors flew throughout election night that turnout was pathetic, awful and downright unpatriotic.

Some even pegged turnout in Wayne County at 5%. But the turnout was actually pretty typical of primaries in Michigan; which is to say, low — very low.

In Wayne County, the turnout was 17.7%, Oakland County was 20.6% and Macomb County finished the night with 17% of the registered voters casting ballots.

And in Michigan overall, 1.3 million people — or 17.5% of the registered voters — went to the polls. That compares to a high of 24.4% in 1982, and a low of 15.1% in 1990.